


Two Weeks Without Bia

by Purple_Timmer_19



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Bianca is unfortunatly dead, But especially Will, Camp Half Blood, Christmas, Clueless Will Solace, Fluff, Long, Nico and Will are both Clueless, Nico is sad, Nico nightmares, Nico teaches a class, No Smut, Solangelo but not until the end, after hoo, but before ToA, solangelo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28640679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_Timmer_19/pseuds/Purple_Timmer_19
Summary: Nico’s least favourite day is December 20th, by a long shot. The day a giant metal statue killed his sister. He knows it’s not his fault, but his mind can still come up with about half a million reasons for why he is to blame for his sister’s death. In the weeks before and after that day, he is plagued with so many nightmares, and would barely cease crying. This is the second time Nico stays at camp, both times during the christmas holidays. This winter, he has a blonde, sunny son of Apollo hovering over him, so staying in his cabin is gonna be hard; especially when only 5 people from this new place know about Bianca: Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Mr. D and Chiron (and Mr.D isn’t at camp right now, Nico doesn’t really know why). Going out and doing camp activities for these 2 weeks is not going to happen, because the ghost king doesn’t think he can stand walking around with his face red and puffy from crying, if he does manage to stop long enough to exit his cabin. What will he do?
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico diAngelo/Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> \- Takes place a bit after HoO ends  
> \- Solangelo aren’t dating yet, but are pretty good friends  
> \- How about we say that Athena gave Annabeth a new invisibility cap as a bit of a thanks for getting the Athena   
>  Parthenos, but she can put this one on and choose whether or not to be invisible because that would be handy.  
> \- I don’t know if Dec 20 is the actual day Bianca died, it is just my best guess  
> \- Leo’s back now, but the Trials of Apollo haven't started. It’s a bit weird…  
> \- In my mind CHB has a kind of schedule, sort of like school. There is a free period that they all have at the same   
>  time, along with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then one cabin might have archery while another has sword   
>  practice, ya get what I mean?

**Chapter 1:**

December 13

**Nico’s POV**

Almost as if a switch is flicked, one week before December 20th, I get a dream. This one isn’t scary, just sad. 

It was her first time baking cookies. I tried to help, but accidentally set the oven timer to 28 minutes instead of eight. Electric ovens were quite new, and I was only seven, so you can’t blame me. Anyway, when the smoke alarm went off at 20 minutes causing Mama to come running, and Bia saw that there were still eight minutes left, we realized my mistake. From then on, Bia or Mama had to make sure the timer was set properly. Eventually, with Mama’s help we got an edible batch of cookies.

While the memory was a happy one, I feel sad because Bia is gone, For almost three years now. Even though I am almost 14 (in about a month and a half), I start sobbing like a four year old. I’m not that weak, I just haven’t dreamt about her in so long. I wipe my eyes and glance at the clock: 6:23. I decide to lay down and let my feelings out for a while, knowing that I won’t fall back asleep and that if I let it all out now, I might be able to attend breakfast looking like my night was fine.

***

At 8:20, I get up, change and look in the mirror. I had stopped crying about half an hour ago, and after washing my face with cold water I am feeling better. My hair is sticking up everywhere and I have bags under my eyes, but most of the redness is gone. Unless you are looking for signs of crying, there is nothing abnormal about my appearance. Good. I decide that because I’m up, I’ll head to the pavilion now.

As I walk over, I look at the ground, trying to not make contact with anyone. Unfortunately, William Solace seems to always get past my most desperate attempts. I don’t notice Will until I’ve run into him and we both tumble to the ground.

“Oh my Gods, Nico! I am so sorry,” I hear a bright sunshiny voice, now laced with concern say.

“S’alright Will. I didn’t see you,” I reply, a little more tired than normal because of waking up early.

“Hey, are you okay? Did you get enough sleep? Did you have a nightmare?” Will asks, his eyebrows drawn together in concern. Even though I am tired, sad and a bit annoyed of being knocked over so early in the morning, I think it’s adorable how his nose scrunches up slightly. Everything about Will is adorable. I have a bit of a crush on this son of Apollo. Okay, I have the hugest crush on Will. He’s just so friendly and funny and kind and handsome and strong and… oh right. By now, Will is staring at me in awkward silence.

“Oh, um… Yeah, I’m good, and no, I didn’t have a nightmare. Why?” I respond. Even though he’s concerned about me both from a medical and friend point of view, I don’t feel like telling him about my sister. Even if he is utterly sweet and adorable.

“Nothing, really. It’s just that you are up early, and you didn’t yell at me for knocking you over.” He sees my facial expression (probably one of confusion and anger and/or annoyance) and says “Ummm… I mean it’s before nine, so I thought you’d be angry at me…Plus you seemed like you were trying to disappear.”

“Ohhhhhh. Right. That does sound like me. But seriously, I’m fine. No scawy nightmawes come to fwighten poor wittle Nico.” I say, putting on a baby voice at the end. He chuckles as the conch horn sounds, and we make our way to the dining pavilion for food.

I grab a plate, along with a pancake, two strips of bacon and a small scoop of scrambled eggs. It’s not much, less than I would normally eat. I don’t eat very much most of the time because ever since I ran away from camp when I was ten, I didn’t have a lot of food. Throughout living on the streets, going on dangerous quests, through Tartarus, and in the jar there was not much to eat. As Will put it: My ‘stomach was wrecked, and trying to pretty much eat itself. Not pleasant.’ 

I gave half of a chocolate chip pancake to Hades, and returned to table 1. We did it a lot like New Rome, where you would sorta move around to talk to your friends. I normally just stayed at the Zeus table, and today I was with Jason, Piper, Leo, Percy, Grover, Annabeth and Will. While Jason had stayed at Camp Half Blood (both to “try out being greek” and start designing and building shrines) Frank, Hazel and Reyna had gone back to New Rome after a couple of days. Will looks at my plate and - seeing the amount of food I had - frowns, but didn’t say anything. Percy, seeing Will’s frown, also looks over, and unlike Will, he asks.

“Are you feeling alright, Nico?”

“Yeah.” I replied, just as I had to Will’s concern earlier. Percy’s frown deepened. “You know what time it is, right? Three years?” I say, feeling my eyes get a little misty. I look down and try to fight it, at the same time Percy wraps his arms around me (from where he is sitting on my right) and whispers “Oh, I’m sorry, Neeks. If you need anything, anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask, okay?”

He lets go of me and I slouch and quickly wipe my eyes. The table had immediately grown quiet when Percy first spoke, so they had all witnessed what Percy did and heard what he said. Everyone looked confused except for Annabeth and Grover. After a moment or two, they resume conversation about some competition on the lava wall.

I lean over and whisper “Finish, then you, Annabeth, me, cabin 13” so only he can hear it and shoot him a look. He nods. I pack up my stuff and walk calmly out of the pavilion, but as soon as I step off the marble I break into a dead sprint, trying to keep the tears at bay until I get to safety.

***

**Percy’s POV**

It’s one week ‘till the three year anniversary of Bianca’s death. And Zoë’s soon after. Nico has just left the pavilion, and he wants Annabeth and I to come to his cabin when we’re finished. I still have half my plate left, but with the small amount of food that Nico got, he had already finished. After about ten minutes I see that Will gets up and walks quickly toward the cabins. I can only assume that he’s going to see Nico. Deciding that he might not like that, especially since he’s probably crying (I can’t blame him, for a minute I thought that I had something in my eyes, too), I rush over.

“Annabeth, come down when you’re done.” I tell her. She nods, while everyone else looks a little confused. I put away my stuff, and sprint down to the cabins. I see that Will is just stepping up onto the porch. Good, I’m not too late.

“Will, don’t!” I call. He looks over, confused, but doesn’t knock. When I make it over, I take a second to catch my breath and then try to explain.

“See, Will, Nico might not… How do I say this? He might not wanna ex-” I am cut off by Nico, with red puffy eyes opening the door.

“Percy, good. Annabeth’ll come in a minute?” when I nod, he replies with “Coolio.” and then cringes. I think I remember Bianca saying that to him once, on the bus. “Will, you can come in, but be prepared to be confused, I don’t wanna explain.” And with that, A moody Nico Di Angelo lets us into the dark and gloomy Hades cabin.

***

**Will’s POV**

Nico lets us in, and I am extremely confused, as he said I would be. I see a shoebox sitting on the bed, with what looked like photos and trinkets in it. Nico sits down beside the shoebox, and Percy sits beside him, wrapping his muscular arms around the boy. Nico begins quietly crying on Percy’s chest. I sit on the other side of Nico, and decide to rub his back. Nico looks gratefully at both me and Percy. Many things are going on in my head. How I want to be in Percy’s place, holding Nico against my chest and comforting him. Then again, I am going a bit crazy as it is, sitting so close to Nico, in Nico’s bed, touching his lower back, _no don’t think like that Will!_ Percy and Nico are now arguing a bit : “It wasn’t your fault, Nico”, “sniff- Yes it was! She -sob- joined because of me -sniff”. It continues like this for a couple minutes.

Percy motions to the kleenex box on the nightstand, and I understand that he wants me to get them. When I get up, Nico looks at me almost pleadingly, which confuses me. Why would he even want me here, when he has someone like Percy, who knows how to comfort him, who knows what happened? Percy could see right through him acting completely normal, by the amount of food on his plate, so what would Nico need me here for? He so obviously doesn’t like me back, especially since he’s probably straight. I decide that I’m holding him back from actually talking to Percy, especially when Annabeth comes in, sits where I was sitting, and begins to talk to him as well.

“Um, I’ma go to the infirmary, I have a shift there in five.” I say, handing Annabeth the Kleenexes and head out.

***

**Annabeth POV**

I come into the cabin to see Nico sobbing onto Percy’s shirt, while Will is grabbing Kleenexes. I sit down on the other side of Nico. Will announces something about the infirmary, and then leaves. When he’s gone for a moment or two, Nico sits up and says quietly

“I wish he didn’t have to go. I like him, like, _like_ him like him.” His shoulders slump, and he rests his head on my shoulder.

“Darling, don’t worry.” I say, feeling almost motherly. “This is good, no? You just came to terms with good feelings, on a day like today!”

“Well, yeah.” Nico admits. “But it’s still a whole week before! This is a week before, and I already have to leave breakfast. I’m so lost without her.” His shoulders manage to slump even more.

“If Will were here, or Bianca, they would both tell you to straighten your back.” Percy chides. Nico immediately sits up. He seems lost in thought for a second, then his face lights up just a little bit, as if he has an idea.

“Wanna spar with me, Jackson? I bet I could beat you. Will doesn’t actually have a shift in the infirmary right now, unless he covered for one of his siblings. Doubtful. Maybe he’ll be there?” Nico says.

“Two things,” Percy starts. “One: I could beat your ass in sparring, it’s on! And two: you memorized Will’s schedule?” -Nico blushes bright red - “You do have it bad!” Percy teases.

“You think you can handle moody Di Angelo in a sword fight?” I ask Percy.

“Well, he’ll probably ‘accidentally’ get hurt so he can go see Wi-ill” Percy says Will’s name in a sing-song voice. Nico covers his face and groans.

“I knew telling Percy would be a bad idea. Let’s go.”

Nico glances in the mirror and, apparently satisfied, grabs his bag (with his sword, armor, shield, a water bottle, shower stuff and spare clothes, and some nectar and ambrosia), zips it up and walks out, Percy and I following.

***

**Nico POV**

I beat Percy’s ass. I may or may not be emotional enough to have to mentally restrict myself from using my powers too much. I’ve accidentally summoned some small rodent bones through the dirt floor of the arena. I’ll have to clean those up later. Leo, Jason and Piper come in after about 20 minutes, and while Jason and Leo start joking around and sparring, Piper comes over. She waits until I beat Percy (third time in a row, he beat me the first time though), and then comes over, Annabeth following. She says that she senses that I have a bit of a romantic emotion with me today. I feel my face heat up (more than it already was), and make sure Percy and Annabeth aren’t going to say. 

“Sorry Pipes, No can tell.”

“What about the sadness that’s there too? Does that have anything to do with all those?” She inquires, pointing to the rodent skeletons that are decorating the dirt.

I don’t say anything, concentrating on pushing the bones back down into the earth. I then shoot another ‘Don’t tell’ look to Percy and Annabeth, and they both nod.

“Thanks guys.” I say. Then I duck out to hit the showers.

***

**Percy’s POV**

I think the rest of the day is better for Nico. He sits beside Will at both lunch and dinner, and seems really happy about it. Will almost seems a little sad? Less sad than he looked when he left the cabin earlier, but still… Anyway, Nico doesn’t cry once after that time just after breakfast, unless he did in the showers. He doesn’t join the campfire, save for grabbing some chocolate and running, shadows collected around him. I check up on him and he is sitting on his bed eating said chocolate slowly, with a sad smile on his face. His eyes seem almost spaced out, as if he is replaying memories on a ‘screen’ in his brain. I sit down, and give him a hug, to which he hugs me back. He doesn’t even jump, which is a huge improvement from how he used to be.

“You good, man?” I ask.

“Yeah. ‘m alright. A bit tired. When I finish this, I’ma brush my teeth and go to bed.” He says softly, gesturing to the chocolate. Then it looks like he just had a realization. “Wait, y’know how my nightmares were so bad that Chiron gave me clearance to have a sleepover with one of my friends ‘if I needed to’ ” he makes air quotes around the last few words.

“Yeah, you wanna sleep with me?” I ask. He smiles so big that his mood almost visibly lights up. We pack an overnight bag, and when the conch shell blows signaling curfew, we wait outside the Poseidon cabin for Chiron to pass through the green, as he does every night.

“Hey, Chiron!” I call. He looks over, seeing the bag Nico is holding and seems to understand.

“I know this is a tough time for you, Mr. Di Angelo, and before you ask, yes. But if I find out that anything happened… umm, between you two… no, wait - ah, you know what I mean.”

“Yes, Chiron.” Nico says with a little bit of a smirk.

We head inside, Nico setting his things beside a bottom bunk, putting a glass of water on the nightstand, and ducking into the bathroom to change. He emerges, teeth brushed, and settles on the bed.

“Hey, Perce?”

“Mmm?”

“Can I wake you up if I have a dream?” 

“Myeah, of course, Neeks” I say groggily.

We both drift off, into a hopefully dreamless sleep.

***

**Will’s POV**

Nico isn’t at the campfire. I haven’t seen him since dinner, actually. I decide to go look for him. I walk down to his cabin, seeing the light is on. I peek inside the slightly ajar door, and see… Percy and Nico hugging?!?!?!? I mean, not that Percy doesn’t have a right to, and I know that Percy and Annabeth are dating, and Nico’s going through a ‘tough time’, so why do I feel so jealous of Percy? I mean, I know that it’s because I like him, but Percy and Nico aren’t dating, so what’s wrong with me?

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

December 14

**Nico’s POV**

_“It’s all your fault!” she screams. My own sister telling me it was my fault she died. “You stupid baby boy! You practically murdered me in a way that doesn’t frame you! I wish you were dead, in the Fields of Punishment. Or maybe, Tartarus, where you belong, you monster. You should suffer. I wish you weren’t my brother!”_

“AH!” My own scream rings in my ears, as I bolt upright, whacking my head on the bottom of the bed above me. I look over at Percy and see his eyes are still closed. I slip out of bed and walk over to his side, kneeling down.

“Percy?” I whisper. His eyes open, fairly quickly.

“Nico? Did you yell? I heard a scream, but I couldn’t figure out who made it.” He says.

“Shhh, we have to whisper.” I say, glancing at the clock: 3:38. “Yeah, I screamed. I had a nightmare.” Percy sits up at this news.

“Are you okay? Do you need help? A hug? Did you hurt yourself? Should I go get Will? Or Annabeth? What was it about?” He rapid fires.

“Woah, woah, slow down. I am okay, I woke you up, so yes, I do need help. No hugs now, but thanks. When I sat up too quickly I bashed my head against the bunk bed, but I doubt there will even be a bruise, so no, I am not hurt and we don’t need Will right now. What exactly would we need Annabeth for at the moment?” I rapid-fire back, answering all his questions except ‘What was it about’.

He sighs in relief. “C’mere,” He says and we climb onto the top bunk of his bed, sitting next to each other, swinging our legs over the edge. “You wanna tell me what it was about?” I wait for a moment before replying.

“Bia was saying to me how it was my fault that she died. How I murdered her but made it look like it wasn’t me. She called me stupid. She said she wished I was dead, and how I should suffer in the Fields of Punishment or Tartarus. She called me a monster.” My voice cracks. “She said that she wished that I wasn’t her brother.” I say so softly, that it’s almost inaudible. Somehow, I manage not to cry. This is my worst fear, Bianca turning me away. I cry at a dream of a happy memory for over an hour, yet don’t shed a tear about the thing that terrifies me most. I wonder what’s wrong with me. Percy sees the look on my face and cocks an eyebrow. 

“Last night I had a dream of Bia and I making cookies and cried for over an hour, yet Bia turning me away is my worst fear, and I don’t cry a bit.” Percy wraps me in his embrace and together, leaning against the wall, we fall asleep.

***

**Annabeth’s POV**

I wake up peacefully. Surprisingly, I didn’t have any nightmares. Perhaps Epiales was busy torturing some other poor demigod? I walk into the Hades cabin to check on Nico. I know, Percy and I have “checked up” on him so much, but we just want to help him. I see that he’s not in his bed, so I check the bathroom, the spare room, even his closet, but he’s nowhere to be found. I rush to the Poseidon cabin to inform Percy, but when I barge in I see Percy and Nico cuddled up together on one of the top bunks. I whip out my monster-proof phone (thanks Leo) and take a picture. Not for blackmail, but for when Nico and Will are getting married.

Suddenly Will barges in and says quite loudly

“PERCY NICO’S NOT IN HIS CABIN!!!!!”

“Shhhh, Will. It’s okay, he’s here.” I say quietly. Percy has woken up and removed his arms from around Nico to rub his eyes. Nico, immediately colder, snuggled closer to Percy and hummed. For some reason Will seemed upset about this and left. _Wait,_ I’m thinking. _If Will is upset about Nico cuddling up to Percy… Does Will like Nico?_

“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey! Breakfast is soon!” I tell Percy, leaving the responsibility of Nico in the morning to him, and dash off to find Will. 

I see Will walking toward the lake, in the opposite direction of the dining pavilion. I follow him until I see him sit down in the shade of a green maple, beside the water. I walk over and plop down next to him, not saying anything.

“Uhhh… hey Annabeth. Can I help you?” He asks uncertainly.

“Truth or truth?” I ask. Sort of like truth or dare, but he can only pick truth.

“ What? Oh… Ohhhh, um Truth. On one condition: I get to ask you one after,” He says.

“Alright. Do you like Nico? As in, are you romantically interested in him?” I make sure he knows what I’m talking about, so he can’t pull a ‘sure I like him, he’s my friend! Don’t you like Jason?’ type thing. He sighs, then admits

“Yeah I like him. Don’t tell anyone please!”

“Well, that would be breaking the rules of Truth or Truth, everyone knows that!” I say matter-of-factly. “Now me. I pick… hmm, hard decision. I think I’ll pick truth.”

“Oooh, edgy!” he says, playing along. “Now, my question is: What’s making Nico so upset? What ‘time of year is it? Three years ago’.”

“Hmm, you’re observant. Did you know Nico when he first came to camp?” I ask him. He nods, so I carry on. “Did he tell you how his older sister went on a quest?” another nod, but this one has a pause before it, as if he is trying to remember. “Well, Nico had a sister named Bianca. Bianca DiAngelo, The Shadow Princess. See, Bianca was Nico’s everything. Nico was born in the 1930s, in Italy.” Will’s jaw drops, literally. “When he, his sister and his mother moved to the U.S, Zeus killed Maria”.

“His mom is Maria?” will asks in a quiet, sad voice.

“Yup. Blasts her with a lightning bolt, right in front of Hades, Nico and Bianca. I think Nico was 4 or so, making Bianca 6. Zeus was aiming for the kids, you see, but Hades protected them. Anyway, they were born before the oath of the Big Three, and because Hades didn’t want Zeus to kill his children, he put them in the lotus casino for 70 years, where they stopped aging. Actually, Nico came out 10 and Bianca 12, but you get the point. So Bianca was Nico’s mother and sister figure, and the only person he knew while being thrust from the 30s to the 21st century. He went to a military boarding school, and then Percy, Thalia, Grover and I found them. We were fighting a manticore, but it was winning so the Hunters of Artemis helped. Bianca joined, because she wanted to live her own life.”

“That's sort of mean, leaving your little brother like that.” Will says.

“Well, think. She went through the same as Nico, but older, so she understood everything. Knowledge can be bad for you sometimes. Instead of having a mother or older sibling figure to be with during the bridge from the 30s to the 2000s, she had to _be_ that, while having none of her own. When someone comes up and says ‘Hey, eternal break, plus you get to be really good at archery and not die of old age!’ she takes that, and rightly so. Anyway - where was I, oh yeah. I get kidnapped, Artemis calls Apollo, they all have to go to camp, Percy, Zoë, Bianca, Grover and Thalia go to rescue Artemis and me, and when Percy, who promised that he would try to protect Bianca comes back with word that she died, you can imagine how Nico would feel.”

“But Percy only promised that he would try, he didn’t say he for sure would…” Will argues.

“Okay, imagine this: You are just thrust into ‘70 years later’ with only your sister. You are a ten year old, who sees a fourteen year old with messy black hair and glowing, sea-green eyes. He protects you and your sister with a shimmering sword, and his awesome sidekicks.”

“Did you just admit to being a sidekick?” I hear my boyfriend’s voice.

“I’m just saying it from Nico’s point of view, okay?” I say, turning my head to see Nico and Percy standing there. I look over at Will, and he nods. “Come sit down, boys.” I invite.

“Anyway, so a super awesome band of heroes from your card game brought to life saves you and your sister. Then, one of said super awesome heroes, promises you something. This pretty much means the world to you. This hero can do no wrong! So he promises to protect your sister. Then he goes, comes back, and the christmas presents you get are to learn that this super awesome hero who does no wrongs just broke his promise, and gives you a doll from your dead sister.” I say with hand gestures to prove that the heroes are really awesome.

“IT'S A FIGURINE, DAMMIT!!” I hear Nico whisper. I chuckle along with Will, then continue.

“You run away from the only safe place on earth for you, and are now pretty much heartbroken, alone and homeless at the age of 10. Your father, who has thrown you into a hotel for 70 years and then not bothered to do anything when your sister dies, calls you down to the underworld. You do a quest for him. It goes on like this, until you are 12.”

“Don’t forget the labyrinth, you skipped an entire summer.” comes the gravelly voice of Nico. I look over and see him fighting for control of his face. I see that his eyes are more watery than normal.

“You can leave or tell me to stop anytime you want, Nico.” I assure him. Turning back to Will, I resume. “Yeah, so you do quests for the lord of the dead, are sort of homeless, and are now wandering a maze - that turns people insane - by yourself, except for the ghost of an evil king. He says he can help you get your sister back, but he was a traitor and only used you to get himself back, which didn’t work. You are then thrown into a battle, in which you almost die from using your powers, and then run away again until the next summer, when you enter full fledged war. Disappear again, do more quests, thirteenth birthday, yay! You’re still homeless. Thrown into T-Tart…” *deep breath* “Tartarus alone, and then captured in a bronze jar for six days, yippee! Oh, I forgot, you have kept the secret of two camps from one another. Yeah, then eros shoots you with an arrow and your forced to admit you’re gay and come from the 30s”- a small strangled noise from Nico- “And someone who you barely know is there with you. You shadow travel halfway across the world with a giant statue and two other people. Then you are thrown into another war, where you're standing in front of someone who might accept you and don’t tell someone that their toga is trapped in an onager and they die. Second death you blame on yourself, excluding any monsters or those of Kronos’s and Gaea’s armies.”

“Third…” Nico whispers.

“Sorry, apparently third. One of your friends almost dies, we all believe it for a week and then Leo comes back, and it’s the three year anniversary of your sister’s death. Oh, and now he’s at a new place, has a bit of trouble making friends and has a crush on a guy that he thinks is straight. Also, like the polar opposite of him, sunny, bright, son of Apollo… y’know.” I finish. I got a little bit sloppy at the end there, but it was out. Will is speechless. I saw the way he looked when I mentioned the crush. His eyes went wide just for a second and flicked from me to Nico and back. Nico is wiping his eyes and nose and glaring at me, that last part probably from mentioning the crush. Percy looks just how I feel: a bit uncomfortable, but wanting to help, plus a little excited at the hint I dropped.

“Nico…” Will mouths, then tries to get his voice working again. “Nico…” he sits up and reaches beside him to give the not-crying-anymore son of Hades a hug. Nico blushes and stiffens, then relaxes into the hug a bit, leaning against the son of Apollo.

“We’re gonna go get some food,” Percy says. “We don’t wanna miss breakfast!” Percy and I get up and leave the younger demigods alone.

**Will’s POV**

I feel so bad for Nico. Okay, that sounds weird, but he’s been through a lot. I am giving him a sort of hug, sitting on the ground with him leaning against me, and this is making my mind short circuit a little. Does he like me? Am _I_ the ‘sunny, bright son of Apollo’ Annabeth mentioned? She did say that he is gay. I decide to take a small risk and run my fingers through his hair. His beautiful, raven-black hair is a little bit tangly, but very soft. This earns a small hum from Nico, but he seems to like it, so I continue. Maybe my hopeless crush isn’t so hopeless after all. I hope so! Actually, on second thought I bet it is. I mean, why would Nico like _me_?! We’re polar opposites! Well, Annabeth did say he liked someone who is opposite him, and that could describe me… Or Austin. Definitely Austin. Austin is quietly straight, I am openly bi.

“Hey, if we go now we might just catch the tail end of breakfast. You wanna go?” I ask after a couple minutes.

“Sure, but only if you promise not to tell anyone, this is very strictly a secret, okay?” He says after a pause.

“I pinky promise I won’t tell anyone without your permission.” He seems satisfied with this answer, almost smirking a little bit at the ‘pinky promise’ part, and moves to get up. I follow.

***

When we get to the pavilion, Nico adds the same amount of food to his plate as he did yesterday. I decide on three pancakes, two strips of bacon and an egg sandwich. As I am reaching toward the yogurt he looks over at my plate, and seems surprised at the amount of food that’s there.

“Whatchya lookin’ at?” I say. He blushes just a little bit, before replying.

“I was wondering how someone can eat _that_ much food. I mean, I know I don’t eat a lot, but _that_ is just too much.”

“Well, I’m in the infirmary later, so I need to eat up.” I reason. We make our way to table 1, sitting down next to each other. It seems like everyone else is already finished and making small talk, or finishing eating and piping up every now and again. 

“Hey guys. How ya doin’” Percy starts.

“Not bad. It’s been a long morning though.” I say in between bites of sandwich.

“Yup. ‘s been Mish.” Nico says. I raise an eyebrow.

“Mish?” I ask.

“Don’t question my vocabulary, Solace.” He shoots back with a glare.

“Okay, okay!” I raise my hands in mock surrender. He cracks a small smile at that, and we both go back to eating.

**Percy’s POV**

Nico and Will are getting along great. Well, they were _before_ but they’re still friendly, maybe even more so. When they say that the day hasn’t really gone well, I see Jason, Leo, and Grover are a bit confused, Piper looks very confused at the fact that they can have a bad day when the morning hasn’t even started, and when they start bantering she has a dopey smile plastered across her face. Annabeth’s expression is one of happiness and understanding, and I have a feeling mine is the same.

***

A few hours later, when it's free block Will approaches me and Annabeth.

“Hey, Annabeth? Um… I was wondering if I could talk to you about our umm… Truth or truth thing earlier. Y’know, like the question you asked me?” Seeing my confused face, he said “Oh, I guess you could come too, Percy.” We started walking, though I don’t know where to. “Annabeth, what if I wanted to, say, hang out with Nico? Do you know where he would be?” Will asked.

“Why would you want to, say, hang out with Nico, Will?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t tease him, Seaweed Brain!” Annabeth said, swatting my arm. At the same time, Will’s face had grown about 7 shades redder.

“Ummm… oh, ah - because I would-er… he’s, no… ummm…” Will turned into a spluttering mess.

“Have you checked his cabin?” Annabeth saves him. Will nods. “The dining pavilion?” 

“No, why would he be there?” Will asks.

“Hm. He’s probably looking down at the crack, either crying, close to tears or just finishing crying. No one is there right now, and that’s where he got the ‘big news’, as Percy calls it” Annabeth explains, making air quotes around the words ‘big news’.

“Well, it’s not _my_ fault that I say something _one_ time and then you tease me about it for the rest of forever!” I protest.

“Thanks, Annabeth. Don’t tell _anyone, please_ Percy.” Will almost begs, but looks slightly grateful.

“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” I say with a smile. Then he speedwalks toward the pavilion.

**Nico’s POV**

I’m at the pavilion, sorta just staring down at the big gash in the marble that I made so long ago. I was so young and careless back then, so reckless and clueless. I’ve learned now. Even though I was welcomed at camp, a lot of people whisper about me. I hear it. They don’t know that, though. They don’t know that I hear what they say, they don’t know that I hear them calling me a freak and saying that I’ll never belong. And they don’t know that I hear and believe every word.

At this point in thought I’m kinda too zoned out of everything to realize anything. Too zoned out to be crying, or see that someone is coming up to me, too zoned out to realize that I should be crying. So zoned out that I’m practically only thoughts.

Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder. I jump and look over to see Will.

“Oh, um… hey” I stammer, still just coming back from that other dimension.

“Uh… hi. Do you wanna do something? Like maybe we could sit by the lake or practice archery or something?” He says.

“Uh… yeah, sure. I suck at archery though.” I respond and start walking toward the beach expecting him to follow. When I don’t hear his footsteps behind me I look back to see him standing there looking extremely confused. “Are you coming?”

“Oh, uh yeah. Where are we going?” He asks jogging up beside me.

“The beach. I know a secret spot.” I say with a wink. He smiles at this and oh gods, that smile could light up the dark side of the moon. I can almost feel my brain melting.

***

After about 15 minutes of walking, we came to the beach and I started walking to the right. When we couldn’t walk anymore without passing through the barrier out of camp I turned right again away from the water and stepped in between a couple of willow trees into the forest that no one would look twice at, and stepped into a grove. Behind me I heard Will’s breath hitch.

**Will’s POV**

Nico led me to a small grove by the beach and to say that it’s beautiful is an understatement. It looked like Pan had made it himself. It was circular, with willow trees near the edge of the forest and other evergreen-looking trees on the other edges, leading into dense forestry. The trees that I could touch while still being in the small clearing were snow-free, but anything beyond that was frosted. There was a short tree in the middle that looked like it was growing oranges, which was weird because this is New York. There was grass around the tree that we could sit on, even though it’s December and there should be snow.

“Want an orange?” Nico asked. “It’s a navel orange tree, so it can grow in cooler temperatures, but the oranges taste a little different, sweeter than normal oranges. Also, it’s weird because they’re in season from like, December to March, but Demeter owed a favor to Hades and Hades owed a favor to me, so it’s in season year-round and you’ll only be able to find this grove if I show you where it is. Also, the perfect temperature that I can change just by a thought.”

“Cool!” I say excitedly, taking an orange from him. We sit down on the grass and munch on our oranges. Nico was right, they taste a little sweeter than normal oranges, so they taste less citrus-y, but still like an orange. We just sit there and talk for our entire free period, and Nico is talking a lot more than normal and seems very relaxed. When we hear the conch horn, we start walking back toward the archery range, but we have to split up because Nico is going to practice sword fighting.

**Annabeth’s POV**

Nico meets me at the sword arena about 15 minutes after the conch horn sounds. Sure, it took like, from 5 to 10 minutes for my entire cabin to show up but Nico is usually the first one here. When he does show up, I ask him where he’s been.

“Oh, y’know, uscire nella mia parte personale della foresta.” _(Hanging out in my personal part of the forest)_ He replies, in Italian. There are some parts that I can understand though, like foresta is a lot like forest. He was speaking too fast for me to catch anything else though.

“Forest?” I question.

“Very good, Annabeth.” He says, talking to me like I was a child who fit the square block into the square piece of cardboard. “ Yes. I was hanging out in the forest with mio amico.” _(My friend)_ He says this part normally, which I like much better.

“Alright then. Well, I want you to teach the class your favourite move today.” I tell him.

“Um… the rest of the class can’t shadow travel.” He replies, a little snarkily.

I facepalm mentally for not thinking of that, and then say “Show it to us anyway. There’s your dummy.” Pointing to a dummy in the middle of the floor. He unsheaths his sword, stepping into the shadow of the wall beside him, reappearing in the shadow of the dummy, slicing it in half at the waist, and reappearing back where he was standing before, all in one fluid motion, taking about three seconds. I whistle in appreciation. 

“That was fast!” Says Malcolm.

“Uh… thanks. I’ve been practicing that.” Nico replies, a bit awkward.

“Well, what Nico just showed us was how to sneak up on your opponent. This is why it can be very good to be traveling in small groups when in the mortal world, because if there’s a monster then one of you can confront it head on while the other sneaks up behind it, and then attacks. The only thing is to be very VERY cautious not to hit your teammate, because they might not see what you’re doing. Everyone partner up, grab one of the monster dummies and practice this, taking turns on who’s sneaking.” I say, glad I could make a non-shadow traveling lesson out of Nico’s shadow traveling move. I look over at Nico, silently asking to be his partner while the other kids call out names and move to get monster dummies (my invention, because we need to practice moves on monsters as well as human opponents). The rest of the lesson goes well, Nico shadow traveling to sneak up and me using my invisibility cap.

***

The rest of the day goes fairly well. Nico and Will sit together at lunch, we go through our day pretty much normal, and Nico isn’t at the fire, but he grabs some chocolate like he did yesterday. Hopefully tonight will be good.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So... I've just posted this chapter for now. I plan for there to be 14 chapters, all about as long as this. I'm just putting this one out to see if people will like it. I probably won't post for a while after this one, because I want to get more chapters done (I have chapter two done as well, as of Jan 8, 2021) before I continue to post. Please let me know if you like it so I know weather or not to continue writing this as it is VERY long. Also, I want to thank The_Dementors_Kiss (my cousin) for bearing through my painstaking writing. She's awesome, and if you like Harry Potter I recommend you check her work out. Thanks so much,   
> from   
> Nevaeh


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